Presenting: Three Top Tips to Dynamic Delivery

Nobody looks forward to spending their time listening to a boring delivery – and you don’t want to waste your time telling people things that they won’t take in so here are…

Three Top Tips To Dynamic Delivery.

1. Engage Your Audience

Keep your audience awake and riveted to your every word by frequently including them in your presentation. By asking real questions and waiting for answers before you proceed, you know that you are addressing the areas in which they are interested.

Other ways to include your audience is to ask for physical participation – as a human pie chart, for example. Perhaps you can draw their attention to a demographic by having previously set up the chairs to represent those percentages, i.e. rather than show everyone a slide with 25% coloured red, have a quarter of your audience seated apart from the rest.

If you are confident of your relationship with the audience, you can try anecdotes or humour. However, if in doubt, leave humour out!

2. Humour is an Excellent Tool

Conversely, even if your stand-up routine drives audiences away in droves, adding humour to a well-prepared, otherwise dry or ‘heavy’ presentation will enhance the audience’s experience. For example, if you are using visual aids, a strategically placed humorous image can help to illustrate a point.

Practicing your speaking skills with live audiences will help you develop a sense of timing, such as pausing for effect, which can work on a number of levels.

3. Address All the Senses.

Present to people’s eyes by dressing suitably and having a selection of appropriate visual aids, not just a slide show. Present to their ears by using sounds other than your voice: a music jingle, a ‘how not to’ video clip or an assistant, for example.

Consider if fragrance, taste or touch is appropriate to help you ‘sell’ your presentation. How would you stimulate these senses to help your audience remember your presentation points? Probably not sneezing powder and stink bombs (unless your audience is under 16) but perhaps something more pleasant, such as comparing ‘noses’ of Burgundy and Bordeaux wines to illustrate complexity… Just to the 25% of course 🙂